Wednesday, May 07, 2008

The Cube

Thanks to reader Mike Campbell for the link, here’s Jim Henson’s (yes, of The Muppets fame) 1969 TV film, The Cube. You could think of it as the sequel to 1984 or Brave New World, or you could think of it as the precursor to The Wall, Brazil, The Truman Show, The Borg (of Star Trek), or The Matrix. But if you get through all of it, you’ll never think about strawberry jam the same way again. My favorite scene is the one in which the Professor, who can only be Marshall McLuhan channeled through Henson’s brain, appears to The Man to explain: “Well, as I interpret what you’re doing here, this is all a very complex discussion of Reality versus Illusion. The perfect subject for the television medium.”